I said, "Dudley and Mickey."

"You mean what's the skinny on Dudley's rackets thing?"

Shortwave sputter: "Chinatown, Chinatown, Chavez Ravine."

"Right."

"Well, feature the word 'containment.' That's Dud's big word, and what he wants to do is build up this empire on the Southside, maybe stretching into Lynwood, where he's got all this property. He'll only sell dope to n.i.g.g.e.rs, and he'll run wh.o.r.es and s.m.u.t on the QT, and he'll run all the coin hardware that Mickey so-called divested. His big deal is supposed to be district gambling, with Mickey as his front man. Feature he killed all of Mickey's guys except me and Touch, and feature he tucking manipulated Mickey into cozying up to the Feds. The Mick's a hero now, he's a lovable shmuck, and Dud thinks he can buy up more Lynwood property and start so-called 'containing' the economy down there, then set Mickey up to front his district gambling franchise, all nice and legal."

"District gambling won't pa.s.s the State Legislature."

"Well, feature Dudley thinks otherwise. Feature he's got a political guy with very large juice in his pocket to make sure it does get pa.s.sed."

Gas Chamber Bob Gallaudet: district gambling supporter.

Tipped off to the Duhamel meet.

Gooseb.u.mps: my dry-ice burns started tickling.

"So Dud found out you were meeting Johnny. Breuning and Carlisle slugged you and doped you up, and Dud tortured Johnny before you sliced him. They got him to admit that Exley was running him as a decoy and that he had these fake bank accounts and this operations cash stashed in a safe at his house. Johnny said he kept trying to pull out of the deal because he knew the slot guys would probably get clipped and lots of other s.h.i.t would hit the fan, but Exley kept sending him back to find out more."

Radio hum: Tommy mobile, Lucille mobile.

Pete and Freddy dumbstruck--holy s.h.i.t/mother dog!

"Why did Dudley make that movie? Why didn't he just kill Johnny and me?"

"He said he wanted to compromise you and use you. He said he was going to offer you this job as liaison and bagman to the LAPD. He said he could use you to take Ed Exley down. He said you were probably a pretty good lawyer, and he said you could teach him things about property maintenance."

Chick oozing brainwaves: kowtow to Dudley or die.

Pete oozing brainwaves: kill the wop and grab his money.

Freddy oozing brainwaves: _Hush-Hush_ would love THIS.

_Atomic Vampire_--INCEST/GORE.

"Chick, what do you know about Sid Frizell?"

"Feature I know close to nothing."

"Has he done time?"

"County time for child-support skips. He's no hard-case penitentiary guy, if that's what you're thinking."

To Freddy: "_Sid Frizell_. He's a tall, skinny guy about thirty-five. He's got sort of an Okie drawl."

"No bells. Am I supposed to know him?'

"I thought he might have taken your cla.s.s at Chino."

"No, I don't think so. I mean, I'm a bug man, so I listen to how people talk. Sorry, but there were no Okie drawls in my cla.s.s."

SOMETHING MISSING.

I grabbed the phone and got an operator--Chino on the line.

A warden's aide answered. Go, tell him: Compile a roster for me--cons at Chino Richie Herrick concurrent. Messenger it down?--No, I'll call you back for a verbal.

2:00 A.M.--custody looming. Radio sputter, _pop_/_pop_--Pete cracking his knuckles. Chick loopy drunk, scorched hair--my damage.

Smells--stale food, smoke. A view out the window: overflowing trashcans. _My_ building--nine G's a year net profit.

Think: snitches, deal-outs.

Last-ditch tries.

Welles Noonan--a Gallaudet rival.

Think trades: Glenda for Bob G. and Dudley.

The bedroom phone-shaky hands on the dial. MA 4-0218--Noonan.

"U.S. Attorney's Office, Special Agent Shipstad."

"It's Klein."

"_Klein, this call didn't happen_."--low, furtive.

"What?"

"Noonan got a film can special-delivery. It's you chopping up some guy, and _I_ know it's a setup, but _he_ doesn't care. A note said copies go to the press if you testify for us, and Noonan said your immunity agreement is cancelled. He's issued a Federal arrest warrant on you, _and this call did not happen_."

CLICK-- Chairs/shelves/tables--I threw them and kicked them and dumped them. I punched myself arm-dead on the curtains; exhaustion had me swaying light-headed.

Radio squawk: "Madge left the house alone. The point car's on her."

"Lucille's entering Chavez Ravine. She's driving erratic, she's sideswiping trees--"

CHAPTER FORTY-NINE

Crisscross headlights, dirt roads--Chavez Ravine.

Dark--no streetlights-- cop lights only. Roof lights, headlights, flashlights--tail men mobile and on foot.

b.u.mper crunched upside a tree: Lucille's Ford, abandoned.

APBs out on me-- I ditched my car and sprinted up the access road. Zigzag flashlights down below: a shack-to-shack search.

"Lad."

Dark, just his voice. I aimed at it, half pull triggered.

"Lad, hear me out before you act precipitously."

"You sent that movie to Noonan."

"No, Bob Gallaudet did. I told him you had Chick Vecchio hidden, and Bob a.s.sumed that Chick would behave in a cowardly fashion and inform on us. Lad, Bob handed you up to Noonan. He threatened to make public a second copy of the film if you testified as a Federal witness, a.s.suming that your testimony would d.a.m.n both himself and this aging Irishman who bears quite a grudging fondness for you. Noonan was furious, of course, and Bob quite wisely retreated to a more judicious footing: he said that the film threat stood, but he would not enter the attorney general's race if Noonan promised no open-court mention of him. Noonan, bright lad that he is, agreed."

"Gallaudet ratted _you_ to Noonan?"

"No, Allah be praised, he just evinced panic and spoke nebulously of complex criminal conspiracies. I'm sure Noonan considers me just an aging policeman with a gift for language and a stern reputation."

Shouts down below. Stray headlights blipped Dudley smiling benign.

"Who gave Bob that movie copy?"

"Mike Breuning. He was afraid our enterprises were in jeopardy, so he gave Robert a copy to cut a deal for himself. Alas, Mike confessed what he had done before I sent him out to meet you, which is why I set him up so harshly."

"Gallaudet?"

"Ensconced with Allah, lad. Neatly dismembered and unreachable. Kill Vecchio, if you haven't already, and there's just Exley sans hard evidence."

"Chick told me Duhamel snitched Exley."

"Yes, that's true."

"He said Exley kept money in a safe?"

"Yes, Chick is correct."

"Inside his house?"

"Yes, lad, that would be logical."

"Big money?"

"Yes, that's correct. Lad, get to the point, you're tantalizing me."

"I can tap that safe. I'll kill Vecchio and steal Exley's money. We'll split it."

"You're very generous, and I'm surprised that you haven't expressed rancor over my machinations at the Ranch Market."

"I want you to like me. If I run, I don't want you coming after the people I leave here."

"You're perceptive to a.s.sume my survival."

"The money?"

"I'll accept half graciously."

Commotion down the hill: cops kicking in shack doors.

"Chick told you the thrust of my plans, did he, lad?"

"Yes."

"Did you infer that I enjoy watching?"

"Yes."

"I view it as a dispensation for the grand work of containment I'll be doing. I view it as a means to touch compelling filth without succ.u.mbing to it."

FLASH: Lucille nude.

"You're a watcher, lad. You've touched your own dark capacities, and now you enjoy the surcease of simple watching."

FLASH: wh.o.r.e-pad windows.

"I empathize with your curiosities, lad."

FLASH--peeper tapes--pictures synced to sounds.

"It pleases me that the Kafesjians and Herricks seem to have piqued those curiosities. Lad, I could tell you many grand stories about those two families."

FLASH--bright open windows--TELL ME THINGS.

"Lad, do you feel the basis of an understanding starting to form? Are you beginning to see the two of us as kindred souls, brothers in curious--"

Shouts, flashlights converging-- I ran down--tripping and stumbling. Shacks pressed up tight together--lights fixed in one doorway.

Tail men huddled outside--push through, look: Lucille and Richie Herrick--DOA.

Tourniquet tied/veins pumped/mouths frozen gasping.

Entwined on a mink coat bed.

H bindles, spikes and Drano on a fox pelt.